A King and Courtiers Come to Boston: Homage to Egyptian Art History

Photo of Rita Freed by Rachel Farkas of the Boston Children’s Museum

A King and Courtiers Come to Boston: Homage to Egyptian Art History

ARCE Lecture

Rita E. Freed (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

NOTICE: Admission to the ISAW Lecture Hall closes 10 minutes after the scheduled start time.

Despite forty years of excavation, countless gifts and a number of purchases, significant gaps remain in the Egyptian collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. One of the many roles of a curator is to fill those gaps in a responsible way, namely in accordance with UNESCO Convention of 1970. Three recent additions to the collection that came without archaeological context or inscriptional evidence form the focus of this lecture. Although legally on the art market, they were misidentified, not only in terms of date, but also—as in the case of one sold as Gandhara—by culture. Reinstating them in their proper context is a challenge historians of Egyptian art are uniquely suited to tackle.

--Reception to follow; registration required to info@arceny.com

Rita E. Freed is the John F. Cogan, Jr. and Mary L. Cornille Chair of the Department of Art of the Ancient World at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she oversees a collection of Egyptian, Nubian, Ancient Near Eastern, Greek and Roman Art.  She is also Adjunct Professor of Art at Wellesley College, where she teaches Egyptian art.  Rita was chief curator for “The Secrets of Tomb 10A:  Egypt 2000 BC,” and “Pharaohs of the Sun,” two of a number of major exhibitions she has organized.  She has also participated on archaeological excavations in Egypt, Cyprus and Israel and has published many books and articles.  An Egyptian art historian by training, Freed received her MA and PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, where she was a student of Bernard V. Bothmer.  She received her BA in Classical and Near Eastern Art from Wellesley College.  Prior to coming to the Museum of Fine Arts as Curator of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art in 1989, she was Associate Professor of Art at the University of Memphis and Founding Director of the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology.

There will be a reception folowing the event.

This is a public event.

To RSVP, please email info@arceny.com.